Archive for the 'Milestones' Category

At 3 months, she’s learnt to flip over completely without knowing yet how to lift her head properly.

At around 3 1/2 months, she surprised me yet again when she could flip over to her belly AND lift her head.

At 4 1/2 months old, she’s done a flip-to-belly, and then flip-to-back and another flip-to-belly! She’s practically a pro already doing multiple flips (proud mama typing here… teehee!)… Now I just hope she doesn’t fall off the bed in split seconds.

I wrote the above yonks ago, thinking I would have time to do some adjustments and post it. It’s been lying at the drafts area collecting dust. I thought I would just post it up now, since it is a major milestone for Miss Jolie here. She can flip well and prop herself up, but as of now still not able to sit unsupported.

Teething
Like her brothers, she’s not given me much problem when she’s teething (or is it just me who didn’t notice :|). Her bottom 2 teeth started sprouting at 5 months, the top 2 started at 6 months, then another 2 at the top started at 7 months and now at 8 months another 2 at the top seems to want to come out too! So careful if she bites, it painful! (Duh~)

Eating
She’s started taking porridge twice a day at a little over 6 months and she’s lovin’ it! This means she’s taking less milk (2 bottles of 4.5oz less) but I’m still a pumping mama at work and and a cow when I’m home. I’ve also started giving her some fruits, mainly bananas and papayas. This girl just can get enough of food, she screams her lungs out when the spoon leaves her mouth and doesn’t go back fast enough.

Hmm… there are actually endless things to write, mostly with regards to the habits of these young flers, but I’ll leave that for another post. Gonna end this post with a picture of the 3 kiddos.

Ugh… another wayyy backdated post on Jolie’s progress. I actually took her for her jab on the 14th of this month. Now looking back at her immunization card, I’m actually quite confused as per what jab she just took (see how blur I am!). Aigh… I guess as long as the Dr knows *keke*. I think I seriously need to ask the Dr in more detail next time I visit her.

Oh, and just for the record, I will not be bringing her back to Dr Lim’s clinic for jabs (I took both boys back to Gleneagles for all their jabs at Dr Iean’s), it’s just too far and time consuming since office hours have been extended and I am now a mother to 3 (hello?!?! I need to save up my leaves OK!). So I guess the next time we see Dr Lim will be at 6 months old, to do a review on her heart thingy.

Vital Stats:
â™¥ Weight: 5.1kgs
â™¥ Height: 58 cms
â™¥ Head: 38.5 cms

Dietary:
â™¥ Her milk intake has just increased from 3.5 oz every 3 hours to 4 oz. This means mommy’s gotta work harder at pumping coz I am now pumping only just enough for her (lots of work in the office!)

Achievements:
â™¥ She has discovered her hands and slurps away at the “drumsticks” whenever she wakes up from a nap and no one bothers to carry her.
â™¥ Her neck has really strengthened a lot. Whenever we hold both her hands she will try to arch forward as if she wants to get up.
â™¥ She sleep very little during the day now, she has many catnaps but prefers to talk to people (such a little chatterbox!)
â™¥ She’s starting to be very alert on her surroundings, so when she’s not extremely hungry, she will be playing a fool and not sucking properly.

Mommy Says:
â™¥ I find that newborns have smelly, sweaty hands as they always clench their little fists. But then, how come I love to smell stinky hands????
â™¥ I just love hearing her coo and coo and coo, it’s as if she has tonnes to tell, being cooped up in the womb for 9 months!
â™¥ There are some things I wanna compliment on this little girl but I’m afraid to jinx it *whisper whisper*…
â™¥ She cries whenever someone raise his/her voice… meaning I can’t scold her brother loudly. Maybe she’s protecting them… hmmmmmmm…

Izac’s potty training started in June this year. I think after countless times of trying to catch his pee with the bucket and failing, the first time he actually ask to use the potty was on Ivan’s birthday on 28th June (although nothing came out that time).

We decided to go slow on his potty training. There were many accidents when he just didn’t feel like telling us that he needed to go. However, he kind of decided to go cold turkey on this and didn’t want to wear diapers even at nights. So I had to go and buy a bed protector sheet from Mothercare to protect my dear bed (newly bought too just before I delivered). There were also times when his “angin” came and he wanted to wear his diapers because he’s just too lazy to use the potty.

I’m glad to say that the training took more or less 2 months and he has been a potty going kid for 2 - 3 months now. So far there are still accidents on and off, and sometimes like two weeks ago, he refused to tell use when he needed to go during daytime. All in all, it’s great to have two potty going kids in the house. As you can see from the picture above, they sometimes go potty together *hahaha*. And the good thing is, Izac got himself trained up just in time for Jolie’s arrival too! (Help mommy save on diapers mah…)

Last Friday, I went and met up with Chanel and Paik Ling at Chanel’s place. All three of us went to Starbucks armed with a newborn, for the sake of coffee and chit chatting. Gila, right? Those people who saw us must be thinking how come these 3 mommies in confinement are so desperate *LOL*. I brought my camera along, but didn’t remember to take a picture of us together (how can this be possible?!).

Anyway, we chatting for the whole afternoon and both of them mentioned bringing their bundles of joy for the traditional jab at 1 month old instead of the 6-in-1 jab which I was planning on getting for Jolie. I was told by the advisor that it’s less painful and we get to administer it only once at 2 months old instead of once at 1 month and once again on the second month.

So finally, this afternoon I brought Jolie to the clinic (at 6 weeks old) for the 1 month old jab. Seems a little kiasu but it’s better to be safe and go with the flow *haha*. The queue at the paed’s was so long, I waited for 2 hours to see the Doctor!

â™¥ Weight: 4.3kgs
â™¥ Height: 54cms
â™¥ Head: 37.4cms

She wailed for a while after the jab, but other than that she was OK! Her next jab will be in 2 weeks.

Other updates about the girl… she loves to coo and whenever she’s awake, she hates to be left alone. When we talk to her, she replies by cooing and smiling, sometimes even laughing. Another thing I found very endearing about newborns is they way the tend to grunt a lot when they sleep, either they’re trying to get into a comfortable position or they have some gas trapped which is trying to come out as a burp… *sigh*…

Time flies, my confinement is over and I can now do whatever I want! As of today, Jolie is already 1 month and 1 week old. I was supposed to blog about her progress last week but was too tired due to…

My confinement helper left on the 31st of August.

Izac started crying and whining for no particular reason, at random times of the day.

Ivan gave me issues of scratching (Izac’s face mainly) and hitting people (his classmate, which I was later told by his teacher that it could be accidental).

Both boys are sleeping later and later, I’m pratically going bonkers with 3 kids in the bedroom in the evenings… but I’m surviving.

Both issues pertaining my boys will be in another post. With regards to Jolie…

Vital Stats:
â™¥ Weight: Approximately 4.00kgs (I measured by deducting our weight when I carried her and my weight)
â™¥ Height: No idea

Dietary:
â™¥ I think she can drink about 3 - 3.5 ounces of breast milk every 2.5 to 3 hours. I haven’t really measured her intake and time as I have not really started pumping fully during the day.

Achievement:
â™¥ Drinks well from a bottle, so sometimes I leave EBM for her if I go out without bringing her along.
â™¥ Able to lift her head for a short while when mommy burps her
â™¥ Smiles and coos when someone talks to her
â™¥ Able to track objects, hands and face when we move it left and right

Mommy Says:
â™¥ She has started to settle down, and has really been much easier to handle than both her brothers when they were her age (I’m wondering if it’s because I’m more pro at this already!).
â™¥ She is a good weight now… and increase of about 1.2kgs from birth.
â™¥ I just love to smell her… everywhere, especially her tiny hands and feet.
â™¥ She fusses on time every evening, around 7.30 pm until about 10.00pm… my guess is colic or tummy upset, so we normally give her cuddles rather than put her down in the cot.
â™¥ She sleeps well at nights, only waking up to feed.
â™¥ She hates having her hands tied in with the swaddle, so she always frees them very quickly and puts them next to her face.
â™¥ We celebrated her full moon on the 30th of August by having dinner with family. And mommy gave out full moon packs to colleagues and some friends on the 2nd of September.
â™¥ Took her to the barber and shaved her bald on the 2nd of September, just like her brothers.
â™¥ I won’t need to bring her in for her 1st month jab like her brothers as there is a new 6-in-1 jab for her, and it’s due on the 2nd month.

Wednesday, 30th July 2008
Around 4:00am
I woke up feeling some abdominal pain and wondered if it’s contractions. Since the pain was bearable and I can’t seem to go back to sleep, I went blog hopping. After putting up this post, I went downstairs and walked around, contemplating if I should hop in and get a shower if it’s really time.

Around 6:00am
Finally, I decided to take a shower as the contractions are about 5 - 7 minutes apart, although not very strong. At around 6:30am, I woke SIL#1 up (she stayed over coincidentally) and asked her to bring me to the hospital (hubs was at work). She said better to ask her brother to come home since he’s already prepared to bring me himself. Hubs reached home at 7.00am and took a shower (must la, pork all over him mah). We finally left the house around 7.30am, I was damn scared there would be a jam (I was expecting this birth to be almost the same as Izac’s, if not easier).

Around 8:00am
We reached Gleneagles, but there were quite a few people already at admissions, and their service was so slow this time, we waited close to 20 minutes before someone served us. By the time I went up and was allocated a labour room, it was already 8:30am. I got tied up to the CTG to see if there were REALLY contractions. After half an hour, the nurse came in and said, “OK, there are contractions and the Dr will be in shortly to check.”

Around 9:15am
Dr Tan came and checked the graph. He told me I have 2 choices, to wait or to induce. The graph showed contractions but they were very mild. If I wait, it could mean baby appearing only late today or even tomorrow , if I induce baby will probably be out by lunch. I told him I’ll wait for a while and see how it goes (still hoping for some action soon). He left after that, promising to come in again around lunch time. After that, the nurse came in and put an IV for me to administer the antibiotics (for GBS), I told her that I have a StemLife pack in my bag (scared I will forget again like the last time). Later still, nurse came and asked if I needed an enema, which I rejected as I have been going to the toilet on and off since this morning.

Around 12:30pm
The contractions still weren’t going anywhere, still very bearable and still about 5 - 7 minutes apart. I walked around for a bit and the contractions seem to come harder, but when strapped in the bed the tend to be lighter. Finally when the nurse asked again if I want to induce, I told them yes *sigh*. So the drip was administered and pain slowly got more teruk.

Around 1:30pm
Dr Tan came again and said it’s time to make it more painful. He look at my stricken face and said, “No big pain, no baby wor…” So he broke the water bag and I asked him how long more. He predicts that baby would come around 3.30pm or so. Pening lor, still another 2 hours!!

Around 2:15pm
The pain was unbearable, I took the gas whenever the pain peaked. I kept asking the nurse if I have dilated enough yet (as you can probably guess, I just can’t wait to have her outta me *LOL*). The contractions were happening really fast after Dr broke the water bag… right after the nurse checked and told me I’m at 7 or 8 cm, I just felt like I needed to push, so she had to quickly call the Dr.

Around 2:30pm
Dr came and said, “Aiyaa… told you 3.30, how come so fast wan *LOL*” By the time he finished scrubbing his hands and putting on whatever a Dr needs at times like these, I was standing by for the word “GO” already *hahaha*…

At 2:50pm
As soon as I heard him say that I could push anytime I have a contraction, I just push lah! One push and she’s out, weighing at 2.77kgs… and I was just so relieved!! Dr didn’t do any episiotomy this time (could it be because she came out so fast?), I had a tear and had to be sewn up (I could feel every stitch that Dr did this time… geli!). Baby had her umbilical cord tied loosely around her neck, just like her 2 brothers. Hubs was there for the opening ceremony (ie. cutting of the umbilical cord)… I think that was the only time he was awake, from 8.30am until 2.30pm, he was nicely asleep on the couch *slaps forehead*.

Peer pressure. It can range from “whose child is best behaved” to “whose child attends the most classes” to “whose child gets potty trained the soonest“. I hate that, I believe each child will “get there” in their own time without the adults being there to rush things for them and take the fun out of being kids.

I think it was when Ivan was around 18 months that hubs started telling me Ivan ought to NOT wear diapers anymore. If I remember correctly, SIL#1 also chipped in “See Boey (hubs’ cousin’s daughter), she’s so smart, she’s no longer wearing diapers and tells her mommy when she wants to wee-wee“. I said, “Yeah yeah, every kid is different. Bladder control needs to be developed, it doesn’t happen overnight.” So, I left it at that, I hate pressure especially with regards to my kids.

Then a couple of months ago around October or November 2006, my mum let Ivan sleep without wearing the diaper, as he requested for it himself *cleverboy! LOL!*. Well, it wasn’t totally smooth sailing. There were nights when he wet the bed… I would say it was 50-50 chance then. Sometimes we even force him to wear the diaper because it made him uncomfortable when he wet the bed at night and no one knows about it.

Slowly but surely, Ivan stopped wetting the bed (only very few times, perhaps sometimes because he drinks a lot before going to bed). He sometimes wakes me up in the middle of the night to go wee-wee. Now, whenever he need to go, he informs us and the he goes straight to his faithful potty. The best thing about this whole potty training thing is that it happened naturally. Ivan himself didn’t want the diaper anymore, we couldn’t have hoped for a better method.

PS: Err… there was that time, just 2 days ago when he told me he needed to go, but I was too darn sleepy to clearly understand what he said. So what I did was cover him with his blanket and went back to sleep *LOL*. Vaguely thought “Hmm… did Ivan say he wanna shee-shee just now?” and then zzzzzzz. Then the next morning, I woke up to a wet bed.

Izac has started saying some words in the past month or more. He started saying them in this order:

1. Awah - first word, not too sure who he’s calling, he calls EVERYONE and EVERYTHING this
2. Amaa - probably referring to my mother, but this word seem to be more reserved, not used as often as the above
3. Dis - whenever he wants something
4. Dare - whenever he wants to go somewhere or when pointing to something

::::::::::: IZAC QUIRKS :::::::::::

When Izac gets sleepy or need a breastmilk fix:

Izac : *tries to position his legs to go to one side mommy*
Izac : *tries to tuck hand under mommy’s arm*
Izac : *when above succeeded, collapse to the right or left, depending on which hand he tucked under*
Izac : *point to mommy’s breast* Dis! Dis!
Mommy : *cracking up*

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I’m cracking up because I’m still extremely tickled to see his method of requesting for milk. After he collapse to one side of my arm, he won’t get up again, not even when I push him to upright position just to tease him. It’ll go like push, collapse, push, collapse… and then he’ll start to whine.

Pictures taken on 12th May 2006Just this morning as I was doing my daily training for turning, I overshot and fell on my other side. I can’t seem to get the right rhythm. More often than not, I had my hand caught beneath my tummy and do not have enough strength to pull it up. Mummy had to surround me with tonnes of pillows nowadays in case I lost control and overturned.

After months of trying to lift head up and twisting in extreme positions for body to turn over, I finally managed to do it and was prop myself up on Wesak Day. You should have seen mummy’s face when she came into the room and saw me propped up nicely on the bed with Gu Cheh standing nearby.

My next target: lying down again from propped up position. Now that I am up, how do I lie down on my back again? Can’t seem to do that, when I am tired of supporting my weight on my elbows up, I can only snuffle my nose on the bed. This is when I hope mummy sees me and puts me lying down again for some rest.

Oneâ€¦ tooâ€¦ theeâ€¦ fourâ€¦ fiiiiiveâ€¦ sevenâ€¦ eightâ€¦ nineâ€¦ tennnnnn!!!Iâ€™ve been away for too long and getting to be too lazy. Most of the time I am too busy with catching up with work, other times Iâ€™m just plain tired and a wee bit lazy. Need to start blogging again, what best to blog about but Ivanâ€™s counting achievement.Yesterday, I took out a box of crayon and a piece of A4 paper for him to doodle on. Out of the blue, while I was writing out the numbers from 1 to 10 on the paper, he started counting with me. After I repeated the whole 10 numbers a few times with different colored crayon, he counted to 10! He was able to count fairly well, missing out on number 6 mostly. Other than numbers, he loves to say A, B and C out of the blue sometimesâ€¦ it really makes me wonder what goes on in his tiny little head!